SURVIVORS!
If you don’t have respect for their strength you can’t be of any help. It’s a privilege that they let you in – there’s no reason they should trust you – none. You can’t know their terror – It’s your worst nightmare come true – a nightmare from which you can never awaken. It’s unrelenting. There has been no safety: no one, no time, no thing – all was tainted. Hope was obliterated – time and time again.

Tuesday, October 13, 2009

In Today's News: STEPFORD MARSHAS have taken over the MHP community...and the man who was traumatized by eating too many Ding Dongs

If you're a long time reader you know exactly what I think about DBT and it's Creator. When the therapist initially began talking about DBT to me I told her DBT was not for me (hey - that rhymes!) and I was not interested in pursuing a career in buckets. And the topic fell by the wayside for a while...but then it resurfaced again.

And when it resurfaced, it came back in a big way...it was all the therapist talked about! I thought I had traveled into a parallel universe and I could not find my way back. I am not sure when the Goddess of DBT (the flying nun) made a 'pod person' out of my caring validating therapist, but it happened! In fact, I have yet to locate the building where the DBT snatchers are housing the caring therapists of old but I am still looking. I call the pod therapists "Stepford Marsha's". When Stepford Marsha took over dear therapist's body and mind, I thought it was just my therapist, but after reading many posts by many different survivors, I am aware that the DBT Cult has become an epidemic in the treatment of survivors. And it seems that I am not the only one who has deemed this (so called) "Therapy" ineffective, but also harmful and retraumatizing.

Let me step out of the DBT room for a minute...

When my husband was 10 years old he snuck a box of ding dongs out of the pantry and he ate the entire box in one sitting. As a result of his overindulgence he developed some physical symptoms that were not pleasant...vomiting, diarrhea and even boils on his skin. He was traumatized by this event and has not had a ding dong in 32 years. Not only can he not eat a ding dong but the mention of the word, or the sight of a box of ding dongs makes him nauseous and retraumatizes him as he remembers the original 'ding dong event'. In hind sight, maybe if he would have had 1 ding dong he could still enjoy the occasional ding dong today....maybe ~ who's to say.

I'll step back into the DBT room now...

I tell the story of the ding dongs not to illustrate that DH was at one point a gluttonous 10 year old with no self-control, but to say that when you have something crammed down your throat until it makes you sick...any future references to that "something" (be it food, DBT, CBT, a child molester's *body part*, or something else) will be retraumatizing.

That said, as an adult DH can avoid ding dongs for the rest of his life ~ but it seems as though I keep running into the trauma of DBT over and over again. Perhaps there are some concepts of DBT that may have proven helpful to me ~ had I not been forced to eat the entire book at one time. Again, who's to say since it did not happen that way, and as you know, we can't unring the bell.

Now that I know I am not the only one who feels this way about DBT/CBT therapy, I am even more mystified as to how these seemingly intelligent, educated therapists who trained for years and are board certified in psychotherapy...many have even earned the right to call themselves "doctors" cannot see it too and instead continue to cause further damage to this already emotionally volatile population. It both angers and saddens me.

DBT "Counselors" attend a "Support Group" where they meet regularly to support each other as they work with this 'very difficult population' ~ but what about "us" ~ where do we go to deal with the additional trauma of being forced to participate in something we find harmful, retraumatizing and worst casescenario fatal.

We need a support group too. We need to support each other as well deal with the "DBT trauma" and talk about our 'experiences' with the Stepford Marsha and the POD therapists. We need to know that there are other survivors out there who have felt the same way, experienced the same invalidating approaches by the trusted MHPs.

I need DBT Detox and a support group to deal with MY DBT experiences! DBT is not our "last chance" for survival and happiness! In fact, I did not even really think about suicide until my own Stepford Marsha started shoving DBT down my throat.

I was forced to take dbt in Calgary Alberta canada. I was wrongly diagnosed and this was crammed down my throat as well. I quit after 6 months of wasted life but not before I was retraumatized by this horrible program. Thank god I had two amazing psychologists before I ever went into dbt so I realized what abusive behaviour was so I ended the torment. Unfortunately I made the mistake of going back to the health care system and they lied to me and said I disnt have to take dbt again but they started doing it in session anyways! So I'm once again quitting and made an official complaint. They literally make me nauseous and no words can explain how much I now loathe dbt! You are ruining any chance of teaching clients when you cram it down our throats! The skills could have been great if only they were clearly taught instead of dictating them